Ringside Rebel
by Unsuspected
Summary: He wasn't more than a storybook hero at first-Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. But slowly, she sees: he's not just a celebrity, not just a name; he's a person.


"He's not something you goggle at in a zoo."

But isn't he? He's Harry Potter the hero, the Boy Who Lived, and as far as the Wizarding world is concerned, he's just that: the main attraction to the circus of saviors. With Harry Potter storybooks, and Harry Potter fan-clubs, what else is he supposed to be? Ginny isn't quite sure, to be honest. If he's not that perfect hero everyone admired, then who is the messy-haired, green-eyed boy who defeated the Dark Lord?

She wonders about this all year, about who Harry Potter really is, but when she sees him coming through the barrier, she can't help but tell her mother excitedly that it's really _him_.

"It's rude to point."

But everyone else is doing it, and he's just faced Voldemort again! Certainly this boy deserves the fame, deserves the title hero, deserves the admiring stares. And he's Ron's best friend! Surely that has to count for something. In fact, to Ginny, it counts for everything in the world, because he really _is_ as perfect as everyone made him out to be.

He stays over the summer holidays, and Ginny doesn't talk half as much as usual. He's everything they were told he was in those pretty picture books. Brave and loyal and so very nice and humble—in fact, he's more than that. But he's different, too. He's not quite as flawless as the fairytales said; he's awkward and self-conscious, and he isn't at all that oh-so-perfect hero. And maybe, thinks Ginny for the first time, her mother is quite right. He's not something to be put under a microscope and examined. He doesn't want that. And it's so very different from how she'd expected him to treat fame, that she can't help love him all the more for it. What can Ginny say? She's always been fond of going against expectations.

She's heard the rumors, of course. All of Hogwarts has heard them. But the whispers ring throughout the common room long after the slightest echo faded, long after the others had gone to bed. They follow Ginny through the doors, up the stairs, into the dormitory. "It's obvious who's opening the Chamber of Secrets. I mean, we wouldn't expect it, but we can't deny..." Maybe it's because she doesn't like to think about him being responsible for all of this, or maybe it's because she has the most terrifying feeling that the real culprit is looking right back out at her from the mirror.

And then he saves her. The nightmare—no, she could never have imagined something so horrible; this was far worse than that—is replaced by what she's been dreaming of for years. Except that she doesn't _want_ to need a savior anymore, because she is Ginny Weasley, not a damsel in distress. And she isn't supposed to get into any trouble but the lighthearted kind. So it all shatters, her carefree smile, her fits of giggling at the thought Harry Potter, all of it.

But she has to move on, laughing with Hermione and Mum about a love potion, and mentally cursing her younger self for thinking to use one on Harry.

Famous and in-danger as ever, Harry (never Harry Potter now, just Harry) now has a madman chasing after him. (No big deal or anything, though. It's an average occurrence apparently. What's a school year without madman trying to kill you?)

And he's even more scared of those Dementors than she is, but he still wants to test his luck, it seems. Sneaking out, breaking all sorts of rules. She'd expect nothing less from Harry.

And then one morning, he comes to breakfast grinning broadly, despite the fact that the man who betrayed his parents had escaped from the Ministry's grip once more. But he's always been puzzling, so it's no surprise at all that all she wants is to understand.

Oh, look, another chance to get him killed!

Just the average life of Harry James Potter it seems: go to school and meet some sort of chaos.

First it's dragons. And for a moment, Ginny can't help but think of that one story Charlie had told her oh-so-long ago about a lovely girl being held captive, and being rescued from her dragon-guarded prison by some brave boy. Just for a second, he's the hero again, the celebrity.

The Yule Ball simply proves once more he isn't exactly your cookie-cutter hero. He couldn't get a date to the Ball for the longest time, and when he finally did he was more awkward on the dance floor than even Neville. (That was saying something, Ginny knew from experience.) But to be honest, she's kind of sort of happy he was, because normal fourteen-year-old isn't quite as hard to talk to as Savior of the Wizarding World.

At the end of the year, he's not normal anymore, but he's not the unbreakable hero either. He's the boy who had seen Voldemort return, the boy who has witnessed the death of a fellow student, the boy who won the Triwizard Tournament. And maybe, even though he wouldn't admit it, it was all a bit too much for him to handle alone.

Fourth year is all bat bogey hexes and shield charms. It's the year of Umbridge and Dumbledore's Army, (and for Harry, the year of Cho Chang and shouting at everyone and losing Sirius).

He thinks You-Know-Who has possessed him, the idiot, and isolates himself. (Really clever that was, seeing as he spent enough time with her to realize that she could help.)

"I forgot."

"Lucky you."

And then fifth year—the year it finally happens. As anyone in Hogwarts would be able to tell you, Ginny Weasley is dating Harry Potter. And for a while, it's lovely...

"I never really gave up on you."

And if he expects her to now, he has another thing coming. Even though she's always known that he's sort of, kind of the most impossible person to be in love with, she's not one to give up. Even though he's Harry, and he won't let anyone endanger themselves if (he thinks) he can help it. Even though people might say to her that she deserves so much better. She'll wait.

And wait she does. She waits for him to leave Little Whinging, waits for him to even look at her, waits for him to talk to her.

"There's the silver lining I've been looking for."

What else is she supposed to say? Don't let Hermione and Ron kill each other? Try not to break into any important buildings?

So she just kisses him. It's sort of like a goodbye, she thinks, but not quite as final.

And then it's right back to waiting, isn't it? Waiting for him—well, that seems to be what she does best.

So Ginny waits as she and Neville and Luna are busy with the D.A. And she waits as Luna's taken from the train as yet another captive. And she waits as she's pulled out of school and stuck waiting at Muriel's. And she waits and waits until she finally feels the galleon heat up. She can't help but feel that however poor they might be, this might be more valuable than an actual galleon anyway.

But—

"No!"

"Harry!"

"No!"

It seems the waiting's done, doesn't it? No more waiting on Harry Potter, for there he was, lifeless as Lupin and Tonks and Fred and everyone else.

But what isn't over is the fighting. Does You-Know-Who think this will stop her—them? He's only ensured that they'll keep on fighting until he's gone for good. Harry may have been their cause for hope, their sole reason to believe, but he wasn't the only reason to fight.

Maybe some will give up, too afraid of what could happen now that their immortal savior was gone. But Ginny, she won't. She knows it, she's so very sure of it. She's no coward.

But what's that? Just as Neville gives that determined call of "Dumbledore's Army!" it seems Harry... He's not in Hagrid's arms anymore. Is he—he surely couldn't—

Yes, right as You-Know-Who raised his wand to finish the woman who had killed his best servant, he appears, shouting, "_Protego_!"

Cheers erupt until they realize that he hasn't won yet. They're both alive, both still determined to win.

And not until Harry's finally won, right up until You-Know-Who makes his final call of "Avada kedavra!" do they find their breath again. Not until they know for certain that he's gone for good, not until it's clear that they've won do they at last begin to celebrate, acting as though Harry was one of those Muggle superheroes. It's funny how defeating the Dark Lord can make people think that you're perfect.

They recover little by little until deep red gashes fade and become thin white scars, until the constant nightmares slowly become less frequent. And at last, almost twenty years after they at last reached victory, Ginny finds herself once more on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

"He'll be all right."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know at points she's a bit of a Mary-Sue, but I will forever admire Ginny. I'd like to think that this fic gives you a bit of an insight into why I like her and the way I think she kind of grew out of the obsession stage. Most of the quotes are a) not mine and b) from memory. This was inspired by a phrase in John Green's <em>An Abundance of Katherines, <em>which was not extremely important to the plot of that story, but is important enough to this one that I used it as a title. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed. (:**


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